Bari has a long-standing passion for cooking from scratch and exploring new recipes. She credits two events for turning her into an advocate for supporting local farmers and producers. Moving to California and tasting the difference in produce that is seasonal, locally grown and harvested when ripe; and reading Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser. Since then, she’s been interested in understanding more about how the food we eat is produced and the impact the means of production can have on our health, communities and the earth.  

Since retiring from a career in financial services compliance and operations, Bari has been living in Truckee full-time and enjoys spending as much time as she can outside (gardening, hiking, skiing, paddle boarding) and volunteering. In addition to volunteering at the Tahoe Food Hub, she helps out with Achieve Tahoe’s winter and summer adaptive sports programs, and is a lead mentor for a SHE-CAN scholar from Cambodia.